The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Satellite programming has become increasingly popular due to the wide variety of content and services available. Typically, a set top box is configured to receive satellite programming in response to conditional access provided through the use of encryption and a conditional access module. When a consumer has proper conditional access credentials, the signals are decrypted so that the output may be viewed by the user.
Satellite television must follow various broadcasting rules set by the government. Other rules are contractually negotiated with various content providers. Such rules provide limitations for users based on geography. A satellite television provider may have rights to distribute content to a particular country such as the United States while not having authorization to provide broadcast service into adjacent countries such as Canada and Mexico. Because satellite beams do not exactly follow the borders, the satellite beams may overlap various boundaries to a certain extent. Further, geographic restrictions may be provided for various types of signals including local signals that are not to be received outside of a particular designated marketing area.
Further, providers of various equipment may not be authorized to distribute the equipment in particular geographic areas.
Preventing unauthorized use is important from a business perspective.